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With news of a fellow outside linebacker getting cut from the team due to academic issues, attention immediately shifts to someone who ought to be the face of the Red Raider defense after four challenging and successful seasons.

His name is Terrance Bullitt. The senior is the toughest player on the roster.

Let’s talk about a player any team would be happy to go to war with.

The backstory: For a program that would have been a BCS bowl team in any other year, the 2009 recruiting class that followed Texas Tech’s big 2008 season makes you shake your head.

How could a team miss so badly across the class? For every solid player such as Bullitt, Kerry Hyder and D.J. Johnson in the 2009 class, there were multiple defensive players who either never showed up to campus or never reached their projected potential.

And that’s before unfortunate incidents and circumstances took out four more players who no longer call Lubbock home.

Defensive back Will Ford was dismissed from the team for various problems, defensive lineman Aundrey Barr retired due to injuries and Jarvis Phillips isn’t on the post-spring roster after a promising start in 2010 fizzled by 2012.

Linebacker Daniel Cobb had lots of potential but got into a legal situation last season and was suspended prior to the beginning of the year until the case was dismissed. He played the second half of the season mostly on special teams and then opted to transfer to Louisiana Tech for his senior season.

So at the end of this season there will only be four players who made it all the way with the Red Raiders from the 2009 class. They are Hyder, Johnson, Derrick Mays and Bullitt. Of those guys, Johnson started three years at strong safety and graduated while the rest of the class will exhaust eligibility this season.

Hyder is a key defensive lineman, Mays is a cornerback fighting for playing time and Bullitt is supposed to be a starter at one of the two outside linebacker positions.

So there’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Red Raiders’ recent defensive issues. There just aren’t many players remaining from a huge defensive class, and the unit is on its fifth defensive coordinator in five years due to head coaching changes and two misses by former head coach Tommy Tuberville.

That’s a good starting point to talk about Bullitt’s value.

Bullitt made the cut, which is a success story in and of itself, and will finish his career with a college degree at minimum.

The Naaman Forest graduate was the 43rd best safety in the nation, according to Rivals.com, and the No. 88 player in the state. His older brother, whom Bullitt looks cloned after, is former Texas A&M standout and NFL linebacker Melvin Bullitt.

He chose the Red Raiders in favor of offers from Notre Dame, Oklahoma State and Wisconsin among others.

At 6-foot-1 and a long, lean 178 pounds and a family history of success in college, Bullitt was one of the fans’ favored defensive recruits in the 2009 class.

He redshirted and emerged as key player on the defense as a redshirt freshman with 23 tackles at linebacker in 2010. It was strong enough to earn Bullitt a preseason All-Big 12 honorable mention entering a promising 2011 campaign.

But before Bullitt entered his sophomore season, defensive coordinator James Willis resigned which brought on Chad Glasgow as defensive coordinator No. 3 in three years. Ruffin McNeill was Bullitt’s first defensive coordinator so the versatile defender had already transitioned from the 4-3 to the 3-4 and now was going to learn Glasgow’s TCU inspired 4-2-5 defense.

Glasgow deemed Bullitt a better fit for weak safety in his defense which allowed Bullitt to use some of the traits he had picked up at linebacker with his high school experience at safety.

Before that season got underway, however, Bullitt suffered a dislocated shoulder. That was a sad day.

Here was this promising defender laying on the ground screaming in frustration and pain in fall football camp. Trainers and coaches all around him.

You wondered if the emerging defensive star’s season had ended before it even got going. It didn’t end, but Bullitt played in pain all season long while recording 56 tackles in 10 games played.

Bullitt was regarded as a hero for gutting through the injury on a weekly basis, but the season was a disaster. Texas Tech dropped to one of the worst defenses in the entire country amid countless injuries that ended up leaving the cornerback spots entirely depleted in the middle of the 12th game, and there was internal friction within the locker room regarding the defense en route to a 5-7 season.

Bullitt underwent shoulder surgery at the conclusion of the season.

In an awkward December, 2011, Glasgow resigned to take over his previous position as the safeties coach at TCU with Tuberville responding with the hire of Art Kaufman. Defensive coordinator No. 4 for Bullitt.

What can you say about Kaufman?

Tuberville finally hit on a defensive coordinator. Kaufman brought back the 4-3 defense and everyone seemed really happy with it.

Texas Tech had a strong defense in 2012, at least in terms of total yards given up.

Bullitt returned to linebacker and found some success in a platoon with 19 tackles.

Unfortunately, the shoulder issues persisted and Bullitt was shut down by the coaching staff and re-operated on in the days after he was held out of the Kansas game — the 10th game of the season.

Tuberville resigned after the 2012 regular season and new head coach Kliff Kingsbury brought in Texas A&M linebackers coach Matt Wallerstedt to be the Red Raiders new defensive coordinator and to install the 3-4 defense.

Wallerstedt will be Bullitt’s fifth offensive coordinator in his five years.

What to like about Bullitt: Everything.

Bullitt has the tools that will make him successful at linebacker or safety.

He’ll play an outside linebacker position for Wallerstedt and co-defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach Mike Smith called the ‘Raider’ which has demanding coverage requirements for a linebacker.

Bullitt doesn’t sit around feeling sorry for himself amid adversity. He just does what he’s told. He has always wanted to play amid the problematic shoulder.

He’s not a big injury liability. It’s not like an ill-willed opponent can dislocate a shoulder at the bottom of a dogpile between shoulder pads and the support system he wears. Shoulders just sometimes give in the unnatural act of stopping a person moving at full speed by creating a collision.

If the shoulder becomes a problem again he has proven he can play in spite of it.

That’s the biggest thing with Bullitt. He has the perfect college football personality.

He’s well-liked on campus and he’s respected in the locker room. Then on the football field he’s an absolute warrior capable of ignoring pain and sacrificing the body for 60 minutes.

Bullitt’s stock is rising in lieu of news Chris Payne is academically ineligible and a lack of proven depth behind him. He should be able to get the job done by utilizing good speed and coverage skills behind being a sure tackler.

He’s an ideal person to become the face of the 2013 team.

Needs improvement: There’s not much to say. He’s pretty much a standard for maximizing potential through his first four years on campus.

Bullitt doesn’t have any interceptions in college, but picks are added bonuses for players who play solid defense within the front seven.

If Bullitt helps force punts he’s doing his job.

The key for the linebacker is to simply continue to give maximum effort and maybe there will be a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of an NFL team willing to give him a shot.

Conclusion: This is a guy who has all the potential to be a comeback player amid challenging circumstances out of his control.

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